Friday, April 21, 2017

Pilot Wings: The Man in the High Castle

As someone who has not read the Story, why not watch the Show?

Coming from Amazon, this was one of the big acquisitions when all of the Streaming Services started to battle it out. Who would win in the epic battle between House of Cards, Transparent, The Man in the High Castle and...Community? Well, it wasn't the last one. In any event, this has been a long-dormant project, so people were excited to see it come to life. Did it live up to expectations? Let's see how the Pilot does...

To the Show's credit, the opening Titles tell the tale quite well- Germany got 'the bomb' first and we lost the War.

Nearly 20 years later, America struggles to resist.

A young man takes a job working for the Resistance to impress his Dad.

I love my Dad, but I don't know if I love him *that much.*

The Resistance is being pursued by a mean old Nazi who loves to torture and manipulate.

Fun Fact: 'Nazi' is actually a pejorative for Hitler's Soldiers. Why is it their new name now?

Outside of the direct confrontation, the common man (and DJ Qualls) is wondering about the future, as Hitler appears to be ill and his possible successors will probably nuke us.

In the Story's big moment, our Heroine gets some Newsreel Footage that appears to show the United States winning the War. How is that possible?

On top of all that, there is the more subtle conflict between Japan (which controls about half of the former United States) and one bit Plot Twist to make things even worse.

If you're like me and haven't watched this, give it a look.

As a non-expert, it is good. Is it much different from the Phillip K. Dick Story? I couldn't tell you. I did read that the mysterious Newsreel was a mysterious Book in the original? To be fair, a man wrote a fake History of Atlantis many Centuries ago and people STILL think that is real. A Newsreel feels like more of a concrete bit of evidence though. With that out of the way, this Pilot does a real good job of setting up the situation, introducing Characters and moving the Plot forward. It isn't just all build-up. It doesn't stall when it comes to setting up its Characters. This is a nice example of how you do a Pilot. It gives me people I care about, a situation that's interesting and makes me want to see more. Good job. If you're still not on board yet, take a look for yourself. If you are on board, tell people to see it...

Considering I went in relatively-blind, I think it turned out right. With 2 Seasons now online, I may have to catch up soon.